Wednesday, June 29, 2011

China had just 6 films crack the top 1000, Hong Kong 8, and Taiwan 6 on our Top Ranked Films, 2011 Edition, based on all film polls. I extended the lists further to include more titles, 30 in all, and I have them separate first, then all together, the top 30 in all off the polls. I then include my own favorite 30, with 12 new unranked titles that include directors Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, John Woo, and Chien Kaige.

These are all worth seeing, Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar-Wai are among my favorite all-time directors, and Ang Lee never made a bad film in the east or west. Two of Kar-Wai's best films were meant as one long film: Chungking Express, followed by Fallen Angels - together they inspired Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Yimou's films got him the job of planning the ceremonies at the Beijing summer Olympics, which were mind-boggling.

These are an acquired taste but nearly everyone agrees that The Seven Samurai is one of the all-time classics of both black and white cinematography, and action-adventure captured dramatically on film, making viewers feel part of the action. The original title in Japan: The Magnificent Seven! When the U.S. western based on this came out, Kurosawa's film title was changed in the west to avoid confusion.

Ugetsu is one of the more haunting stories put on film, suffice to say that there are surprising plot twists that no one can see coming.

Departures won 33 awards overall. Shall We Dance? won 52 awards out of 55 nominations.

Lang, Murnau, Herzog - these are not only deservedly at the top of this list but are also among my favorite directors. Each seemed to make his films into works of art.

Fitzcarraldo remains a favorite 'obsession on film', a grand adventure as crazy as its director. Les Blank's documentary Burden of Dreams chronicles the making of the film and Herzog's own obsession. I was also riveted by The Lives of Others, and Das Boot.

Even today, the filmmaking artistry of Leni Reifenstahl is undeniable; she undoubtably gets moved down the list because it's all Third Reich propaganda, but those interested in creative camera work and direction should definitely see these, at least Olympia, which documented the 1936 Olympics.

The Conformist remains one of my favorite films from any era. For me, Bertolucci's finest, and the influence on Coppola is obvious as this seems to have inspired the Godfather films. However, this is almost a total Italian film so I've placed it in my list of Italian favorites and removed it from here.

City of God is a modern masterpiece, a literal war in the streets of what's considered the worst slums in our hemisphere; this is my favorite Brazilian film, but it's not really a German film. Same with Fight Club, which I liked a lot.

Tom Tykwer is so creative, he's my favorite modern German director, while Herzog, Lang, and Murnau are the all-time masters here. Run, Lola, Run starts with a phone call, and Lola's boyfriend has lost some money - if she can't get to him in 20 minutes, he's a dead dude.. so the race is on, and never lets up..

Some of the multinational films I purposely left off my list since they seem more like other nations (like Antonioni and Bertolucci) than French films.

Many that I left off of my list I simply haven’t seen, such as L’atalante, Pickpocket, My Life to Live, Celine and Julie Go Boating, L'Âge d'or, Le Cercle Rouge. Some others I have seen and just didn’t like a lot (Children of Paradise I found tedious and cliché ridden – I mean, do people HAVE to sing La Marseilles in every French film? This one also had the clichés of mimes, Pierrots, cognac, and mistresses; you name it, if it’s French, they put it in this film. So where the heck was Chevalier singing?)

How in the world is Jean de Florette unranked? For me, and many others I’ve talked to, this is France’s best epic, a multi-generational story about land, water, and justice in life. One novel filmed as two films, four hours total, released simultaneously as a double feature so people could see both parts in one sitting or return for the second half, Manon of the Spring (aka Manon des Sources). Claude Berri also directed the wonderful and uplifting story The Two Of Us (aka, The Old Man and the Boy, also unranked), about a Jewish child sent from Paris to live with an elderly couple in the country during WW2.

I found Children of Paradise (#20) painstaking to sit through; and La Jetee is not even a film, its 15 minutes of still photos with a narrator - it has no "moving pictures".

The 400 Blows is terrific, shot at 25 by Truffaut, a movie critic, for his first feature film. Much of it was improvised, most was overdubbed later by the actors so he could shoot in the streets without bulky sound equipment.

Louis Malle's first fim, Elevator To the Gallows, belongs on this list. It's only ranked 1593rd overall.

At one point, I was gonna say that you could tell a French film because (a) someone will either dress up like a woman or two guys will dance together (b) someone will sing something French, either Freres Jacques or La Marseillaise (c) someone will do mime or Pierrot the clown with the frilly collar (d) someone will drink cognac or champagne, or both. I believe ALL of these are in the classic La Grande Illusion (well, not Pierrot), which is a masterpiece anyway; all are in Children of Paradise (which I don't like). Thankfully, I saw enough French gangster films that the stereotype was finally broken. But I still don't get their spelling - if all those letters are silent, then why use 'em? Rendezvous that..

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

This begins our series of posts of the top ranked films on the internet by individual nations. I think Italy is my favorite nation for foreign language films, followed by France, Japan, China-Hong Kong-Taiwan, and Russia.

The U.S. easily has the most listed, with 502 in the top 1000, an increase from 482 in 2009. France is second with 87 (but 135 if you include joint efforts). The UK is next with 112.

Many international films present a unique problem: they are sometimes made by several countries together, so separating the true country of origin may be difficult. This time I've usually gone with the director's main country of origin - a Melville film was France-Italy produced, I'm putting it into the French films post, not the Italian one here.

In this case, we are listing the films from Italy alone first, 33 in the top 1000, then a second list that includes all Italian joint efforts with other nations (36 more), then a merged list of all those 69. I listed my favorite 40 Italian films after that, which includes some unranked ones, like De Sica's Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Tornatore's The Legend of 1900, and Malena. Those on my list with links connect to our reviews at 1000 Dvds to See

Photo is actor-director Vittorio De Sica, who said "I lost all my money on these films; but I did them so I would have Umberto D and Bicycle Thief.."

These are some of my favorite foreign language films, I think because they are so well composed visually, yet are also touching; plus, the language really is one of the most enjoyable to hear, isn't it? Umberto D is a masterpiece of the heart to me, while L'avventura is one of the best composed films shot-for-shot that I've ever seen (see photo above), one of three that Woody Allen said "transcend film and become art". It won a Jury Prize at Cannes (after being booed by the audience) for "giving us a new way to look at cinema". The two films that followed it are L'Eclisse, and La Notte, all worth seeing.

Cinema Paradiso is an homage to a life spent with movies, a love letter to their inspiration, and an autobiographical story of Guiseppe Tornatore, from Sicily. L'america is a striking statement about identity, alienation, and hope.

Bertolucci's The Conformist is a riveting indictment of losing one's ethics for personal gain, and its style influenced many American directors. His cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, became a favorite in the US, winning Oscars for Apocalypse Now, Reds, and The Last Emperor. They won an award in 1998 as best director-cinematographer duo.

Fellini may not be for all tastes, but I think La Dolce Vita is another masterpiece, while his Amarcord may be more accessible to general audiences as it's a nostalgic, autobiographical look at growing up in a small Italian town.

Digital Copyright

Photo Credits

Great Film Fans

Total Pageviews

Introduction to World's Best Films

We will review (spoiler-free capsule reviews) and list the greatest films in history, wherever and whenever they were produced.

All films in Gold won Best Picture Oscars®. * is a new addition in a list.

Our Top Ranked 1000 Films, all polls, was compiled by taking all film polls we could find, throwing them into a spreadsheet, and gave numeric points in descending order. The result was over 2200 films listed in all, ranked by their relative positions in all the polls combined. This combination of both critics and fans polls should give film fans the most objective list of how films are perceived by the total film community, not just a small group of fans.

Relevant to said mission is the following query which I now put forth to you: wherein this most streamlined and trunkless of transports, boner-inspiring though it may be, wherein are we to reposit our most recently deceased cargo?” - Sin City

Go ahead, make my millenium! - Beetlejuice

I have nothing, I am a river to my people! - Lawrence of Arabia

Hey, senor, how much for the leetul girl? How much for the women? - The Blues Brothers

It's a girl and a midget, 'gidget', get it? - Gidget

I've worked in the private sector, they expect results. - Ghostbusters

Man, that's one big twinkie! - Ghostbusters

I put the grrr in swinger, baby! - Austin Powers

Badges? We don got to show you no stinkin badges! - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Boredom's the first step on the road to relapse - Clerks II

I ain't 'people'! I am a.. 'a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament' - Singin' in the RainIf we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work ain't been in vain for nothin'. - Singin' in the Rain (both from Jean Hagen)

..More Quotes

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore! - Network

Lend all men thine ear, but lend few your tongue - Hamlet

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. - Hamlet

Doubt the the stars are fire; doubt that the moon's above; doubt that the truth's a liar; but never doubt my love - Hamlet

I picked a helluva week to give up _____ - Airplane!

You can always pay half the poor to kill the other half. - Boss Tweed, Gangs of New York

The first rule of politics: the ballots don't make the election winner, the counters make the winner. - Boss Tweed, Gangs of New York

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night - All About Eve

You can still dish it out, but you just can't take it anymore - Little Caesar